Bleeding Black and Gold…

August 14, 2010 - Ray Eckenrode

Three things to watch for tonight:

The play of Jonathan Dwyer, who needs to emerge as a legitimate threat at running back, where the Steelers are woefully thin. In today’s NFL, you need four, count ‘em, four running backs – a starter, an every-third-series backup, a third-down back and a short-yardage back. The Steelers enter the season with half of that in starter Rashard Mendenhall and third-down back Mewelde Moore. The Steelers need the ultra-talented but oft-troubled Dwyer to step into the backup role.

Is Emmanuel Sanders the real deal? The whispers coming out of Latrobe that the playmaker from SMU could make Steelers fans forget about Santonio Holmes very quickly. (Holmes, btw, has already forgotten about Steelers fans.) Impressing on the practice field is one thing, impressing in the preseason another, but doing it when it counts is a whole different kind of good.

Steelers defensive players have been vocal about improvements their seeing from second-year D lineman Ziggy Hood and fourth-year pro Lawrence Timmons. On a defense that is in need of new stars, it’s good to see there are at least several candidates.